Food Buzz

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Potato Leek Soup for a cozy day

Third day of rain in LA...and not sure what to do with myself! Believe me, I am not complaining. We have at least 325 days of happy sunny weather in LA but after a few days of rain and temperatures almost cold enough to put on the heat, I decided to make potato leek soup.

For those of you who have never cooked with leeks before, they are part of the onion and garlic family and are sort of like a thicker, less bitter scallion or green onion. It's important to cut them vertically and to clean them well as the layers catch a lot of soil when they grow.

I perused a bunch of recipes - most of the ingredients were the same, potatoes and leeks (obviously), milk or cream, water or stock, butter or oil and some spices. So I decided to make up my own recipe and I have to say it came out pretty darn good. I did not have cream nor did I want those extra calories so I used non-fat milk and I still thought it was thick and rich.

1. Place pot over low to medium heat and add olive oil or butter until heated. Add sliced leeks and sweat them about 10 minutes until tender (don't brown them). Add thyme during last few minutes of sweating.

2. Add potatoes and stock and increase heat until simmering. Lower heat, partially cover and cook for about 45 minutes. Taste and add salt, pepper as needed. Turn off heat.

3. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until pureed (or alternatively, blend batches in a stand up blender, being careful not to burn yourself). Taste again and season if necessary.

4. Stir in milk or cream. Serve!

This is a much lighter version of some other potato leek recipes (like Alton Brown's) and i am pretty happy with the way it turned out (and I have no guilt because it is low fat)!

You know what happened once I sat down to eat it, right? The sun came out. :)